Playlist: Shynola

Made up of Jason Groves, Chris Harding, and Richard ‘Kenny’ Kenworthy, filmmakers and mixed-media artists Shynola are a creative collective that have helmed music videos for artists such as Blur, Beck, Queens of the Stone Age, Coldplay, and Radiohead.

Signed with RSA and sister company Black Dog, the collective's work has picked up a raft of awards from bodies including D&AD, UKMVA, MTV VMA, NME Brat Award, BBC2 Awards and MPVA Awards.

Now the collective let us know what's on their Playlist.

What's the best promo you’ve seen recently and why?

I really liked De Staat’s Witch Doctor [below]. It’s simple but original and I was particularly impressed by how much they achieved with limited means.

What’s the first promo you remember being impressed by?

Probably Lucas’ Lucas with the Lid Off [below] by Michel Gondry. I remember picking up shots in the library while I was studying for my Masters degree and reading about him and Spike Jonze and being awed. When I heard that [Chris] Cunningham, [Jonathan] Glazer and Hammer and Tongs were British the penny dropped that this was something you could actually do. And not long after that we did.

And what’s your all-time favourite music video?

Roots Manuva’s Witness the Fitness [below] by Mat Kirkby. It’s perhaps not the best video ever made but it's one of the very few videos I have watched more than twice. What it lacks in finesse it more than makes up for with charm. The three-legged race gag makes me laugh every time.

What other directors/artists do you look to for inspirational?

I try and avoid looking at other directors in our field as I think this is a creative dead end and essentially inbreeding. But I consume vast quantities of films, books, comics, podcasts, essays, exhibitions, you name it.

What are you listening to at the moment?

I’m currently revisiting the whole Beastie Boys [Beastie Boys: Intergalactic; below] discography and sifting out those tracks with profanities so I can listen to them with my sons.

What’s your favourite bit of tech, whether for professional or personal use?

It’s a free piece of software called Chrome Remote Desktop. It allows me to control my desktop computer at our studio via my phone. I can launch renders or transfer files, without having to get out of my bubble bath.

What artist(s) would you most like to work with and why?

I’m not convinced anyone has made an interesting music video for Adele [Hello, below] yet, which is weird given her stature and unique personality. So that would be an interesting challenge. But moreover I’m a big fan of hip-hop, yet we’ve never been asked to make a hip-hop video...

How do you feel the promo industry has changed since you started in it?

When we started it felt like an artisan farmer’s market. Now it’s similar to the state of chicken farming.

Music videos have had a resurgence of late; where do you see the industry being in five years’ time?

If you extrapolate the graph of ‘viewing counts’ versus ‘budgets’ then I’d say in five years’ time you’ll be watching a video with a trillion views which somehow cost minus four hundred thousand pounds to make. Hopefully something will change.

Tell us one thing about yourself that most people won’t know…

I requested Terry Gilliam visit my art college, but when it came time for him to sit and critique my work I ran away.